Starts off great, but then begins an unfortunate suck-fest

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2003)

28 days later is one of those movies I hoped would live up to its reviews. It is few and far between that you see a horror movie come out that is praised as much as this one and truly delivers. I honestly can't remember when critics have now, ubiquitously compared a movie as frightening as the Exorsist and their claims to have been true. Unfortunately, their claims about this one were mostly false.
I won't go so much into plot developments...but the first half of this movie works pretty well. We are given only the bare minimum of the source of the virus...which in this case, is okay, but just barely. We are given incredibly great isolated shots of a dead city and a man left alone. Jim, the main character, eventually finds a small group of people who eventually seek shelter with a squad of soldiers who are broadcasting a signal for survivors. Through their trek to find the soldiers, the survivors encounter the occasional situation of the undead or the remnants of a lost society. Great direction, wonderful feeling of claustrophobic isolation, intense feeling of futile dread...totally high caliber material here... So far the movie works better than great...however, the movie begins to truly suck once the survivors reach the soldiers.
As a horror movie, this one is really not that scary unless you have a more vivid imagination than I do (and that's saying a lot). The scares derived from this one are from loud staccato 'JUMP' scares, not so much tension or fear. Though there are at least two geniune scares in the first hour, the rest of the movie falls into the category of mediocre during its second half, which should have been, given the story, its most exciting half.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
I'm sorry, but survival horror is survival horror. Dawn of the Dead did this perfectly. 28 Days did not. True, the soldiers were acting immoral, and I did feel for the women that they were trying to seduce in order to continue the species, but the finale, where the soldiers are the bad guys, in my opinion, truly sucked. The movie was so interesting with the soldiers cooped up in that castle, that when they made it clear that they wanted the ladies for themselves, the rest of the movie simply falls apart. There is a lot of holes in the plot that proceed this, and eventually, it becomes a story about Jim, trying to save the two women from the very people that would be their best chance at survival. Sure, rapists are the worst form of life, and given the situation, who wouldn't at least think of wanting a 'piece of action', but I wasn't truly convinced that the soldiers suddenly turned this way in the story. They were not portrayed as evil until the screenwriter say so, which ultimately leads to unconvinving assumptions. They are fine one minute, and the next, they turn into unconvinving savages that the script demands be wiped out. I also was not convinced by Jim's sudden 'Heart of Darkness' spin that was only hinted at when he bashed a zombie off screen with a baseball bat earlier in the film. Plus, we are given precious few insights about Jim's character that would promote even the slightest hint of simpathy of him. What ends up is a bunch of 'faces' struggling to survive, and we simply watch to see which 'faces' end up surviving.
If they were trying to convey a story about the struggle of 'humanity' even in its darkest hour, the last 30 minutes failed to convey said message. All we have is a lack of explanation, a sudden mutiny, or change in character that causes the main character to escape and seek rather sadistic vengeance on the soldiers. That is the grand finale, so whether you like this movie or not will be based totally upon your involvement in this movie 30 minutes before the finale. I for one was pretty engrossed with it, until it became totally unrealistic, and just labeled the soldiers as 'bad guys' b\c the script called for it. Sorry, but that didn't cut it for me. I just didn't buy the utter stupidity of people during the last half an hour, but maybe others will, and in fact prove me wrong and say that they enjoyed this movie. Opinions, of course are in fact, personal preference.

Think of Aliens or hell, even Day of the Dead, and you have superior films that convey a much stronger message. These movies are all about the acting, the emotions, the character studies, the split second reaction situations involving moral conflict... This movie shows a couple of these situations very well, but overall, conveys very little, and ends on a note that really lacks emotion towards the survivors.
28 Days Later should have been more than it was, but failed miserably in the final act. It either should have been a character study, or a zombie flick, but tried to find a compromising medium which ended up being uncomfortable for this kind of movie, so it ends up satisfying few, and disappointing far more too many.
As I said, the first 90 minutes are pretty darn good, it's the last 30 minutes that are just plain horrible. 6/10 stars for providing a very convincing opening...would have easily been a 9/10 if only they had provided a convincing/satisfying finale.